S/PV.2412 Security Council

In accordance with decisions taken at the 2401st meeting, I invite the representatives of Morocco, the Niger and Senegal to take the places reserved for them at the side of the Council chamber; I invite the representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to take a place at the Council table. Provisional agenda (S/Agenda/2412) I. Adoption of the agenda 2. The situation in the occupied Arab territories: Letter dated 5 November 1982 from the Permanent Representative of Morocco to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/15481); * Letter dated 9 November 1982 from the Permanent Representative of the Niger to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/15483); Letter dated 8 February 1983 from the Chargk d’affaires nd interim of the Permanent Mission of Jordan to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/1.5599) At the invitation of the President, Mr. Mrani Zentar (Morocco), Mr. Oumarou (Niger) and Mr. Saw& (Senegal) took the places reserved for them at the side of the Council chamber; Mr. Terzi (Palestine Liberation Organization) took a pluce at the Council table.

I should like to inform the Council that I have received letters from the representatives of Egypt, India, the Syrian Arab Republic, Yemen and Yugoslavia in which they request to be invited to participate in the discussion of the item on the agenda. In conformity with the usual practice, I propose, with the consent of the Council, to invite those representatives to participate in the discussion without the right to vote, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Charter and rule 37 of the provisional rules of procedure. The meetir?g was called to order at 4.10 p.m. Expression of thanks to the retiring President I. The PRESIDENT linterp,‘Ptcrfiorl j?om Russian): I should iike at the very outset to pay a rribute to Mr. Atsu-Koffi Amega, representative of Togo, for his service as President of the Council for the month of January. I am sure I am speaking for all members of the Council in expressing to Mr. Amega deep gratitude for the great diplomatic skill, tact and courtesy with which he guided the Council’s work last month. At the invitation of the President, Mr. Khalil (Egypt), Mr. Krishnarz (India), Mr. El-Fattal (Syria/z Arab Republic), Mr. Sallam (Yemen) and Mr. Golob (Yugoslavia) took the places reserved.for them. at the side of the Council chamber.

I should like to inform members of the Council that 1 have received a letter dated II February [S/15604] from the representative of Jordan which reads as follows: Adoption of the agenda The agenda was adopted. The situation in the occupied Arab territories: Letter dated 5 November 1982 from the Permanent Representative of Morocco to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/lS481); “I have the honour to request the Security Council to invite Mr. Clovis Maksoud, Permanent Observer of the League of Arab States to the United Nations, to participate in the consideration of the It was so decided.

Members will recall that the Council considered this item at the 2401st meeting, on 12 November 1982. The Council resumes its consideration of the matter today in response to the request contained in a letter dated 8 February 1983 from the Charge d’affaires ad ilzter’irn of the Permanent Mission of Jordan to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council [Sll5599]. 7. I should like to draw the attention of members of the Council to the following documents: S/15488, which contains the text of a letter dated 12 November 1982 from the representative of Jordan to the President of the Council; S/15.510, which contains the text of a letter dated 3 December from the representative of Morocco to the Secretary-General; S/15572, which contains the text of a letter dated 21 January 1983 from the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People addressed to the Secretary-General; S/15.574, which contains the text of a letter dated 24 January from the representative of Jordan to the Secretary-General; and S/15576, which contains the text of a letter dated 27 January from the representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the Secretary-General. 8. The first speaker is the representative of the Syrian Arab Republic. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. President, allow me to express to you our great esteem for your friendly country, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. My delegation takes great pleasure in seeing you presiding over the Council this month, with your well-known diplomatic expertise and broad experience and great objectivity. 10. I should like also to express to my colleague Mr. Atsu-Koffi Amega of Togo our sincere congratulations and our appreciation of his outstanding wisdom and competence. 11. Today the Council is continuing its consideration of the Israeli racist settler practices in the occupied Arab territories. The Council today faces the strategy of ’ ‘leaping’ ’ annexation, which was in the past preceded by the strategy of “creeping” annexation. The Israeli usurpers are no longer content with creating,fi& acconrplis on the land inch by inch but now are sadistically involved in an expansionist 12. In contravention of the principles of international law and the fourth Geneva Convention of 1949,’ the Israelis put forward exclusivist and selective interpretations of the law of nations, just as the Nazis did during the Second World War-and you, Mr. President, know full well what nazism means-when they deprived the people of Eastern Europe of human or legal protection under the pretext that those people were savages and uncivilized. Thus today the Israeli colonialists resort to the same racist pretexts to deny the rights of the Arab people to legal protection. 13. The charter of the Nazi Herut Party, which is the largest party in the ruling Likud coalition in Israel, provides that all Palestine, in addition to the East Bank of the Jordan, is Jewish territory. This slogan was chanted at the headquarters of the Herut Party by Begin’s supporters during the elections that he won in 1977: “This one is ours and that one too.“* 14. And in the second paragraph of the so-called guiding principles, the Government of Israel stales that “the Jewish people has an unquestionable historical right to the land of Israel, the bequest of 0111 forefathers”. 15. It is on this illusory basis that Begin’s GOVLTIImen’-which is no different from the previous, Labour Party, Governments of Israel, which ruled Isrnel through Zionist dogma-declares that the West Bank is not an occupied territory, but rather a “liberated territory”. That claim runs counter to the most rudimentary principles and norms of international lnw, as adopted by the international community, represented in the United Nations. 16. Every crimin’al has his own way of justifying his crime, but the worst excuses are those which ascribe the crime to divine causes. The fact is that all religions and beliefs teach us that all hutnan beings are equa!, and we firmly believe in our common humanity. But the Zionists believe that the world is divided into :i “select klite” and an inferior class, the common people. We are taught that man was created in God’s image, but Begin, Sharon and Shamir are trying today to impose a new concept upon us: that the Lord w;1s created in their image. What a disgrace it is that they debase the Lord and compare him to a real estate broker or a travel agent or an advocate of’ settler colonialism. What a disgrace it is, especially to do SO before the Council. What a disgrace! * Quoted in English by the speaker. 23. In the Golan Heights, the Israeli occupation authorities have persisted in their brutal practices against our people in that occupied territory, thereby attempting to stifle any opposition to their designs for settlement and occupation. In a release dated 8 December, a French news agency stated that the Zionist occupation forces had arrested seven citizens in the Golan Heights, a fact that was confirmed by the Zionist security organs. Five of those arrested were from the village of Majdelshams and two from the village of Bakaata. They had been arrested because of their opposition to the occupation and annexation of the Golan Heights and the imposition of Zionist colonial status upon them. On 22 December the Zionist occupation authorities stormed the village of Majdelshams with tanks, armoured cars and heiicopters and laid siege to it. The Zionist forces searched the houses, carrying out a campaign of terror and humiliation against men, women, children and the elderly, because as Syrian nationals they had rejected the Zionist regulations imposed by the occupation authorities in an attempt to undermine their national resistance, 18. By September 1982 the number of Israeli colonialist settlements in the West Bank and Gaza had reached 139, and the number in the Syrian Golan Heights-which were annexed against the will of the Council and in contravention of its resolutions-had reached 33, most of them of American origin. In Jerusalem, where it is impossible to calculate mathematically the expansion process, there are today more than 90,000 settlers who have colonized the annexed portion of the city, the eastern part, and there are 30,000 others who have settled more than 100 nahnfs, or military outposts, thereby laying racist siege to the City of Cities. 19. All this has been accompanied not only by expropriation, expulsion, deportation, imprisonment and oppression, but also by notions of superiority and by racial discrimination, which is no secret even to the representatives of the United States. 20. The New York Times of 5 November 1982 quoted David Levy, the Israeli Housing Minister, as having said two days earlier that another five settlements would be established in the West Bank in the race to alienate Arab rights-a race between Washington and Tel Aviv. That same newspaper, on 4 November, quoted a spokesman for the World Zionist Organization as saying that there are 25,000 Jews living in 103 settlements in the West Bank and that Israel will proceed with the implementation of its plan to settle 400,000 Jews on the West Bank. 1 use the word “Jew” not to mean the adherent of a religion, but to mean a settler-colonialist, for they have distorted the meaning of Judaism and transformed Jews into settlers -that is, into criminals-at the expense of the rights of the Arab people: 400,000 Jews in the West Bank in the next five years, and 1.4 million Jews in the next 30 years. Again, by Judaism I do not mean a religion; I use it to mean racist settler Zionism, committed to colonialism and to United States imperialism. 24. In the national charter formulated at Majdelshams on 25 March 1981, a document expressing the will of the Syrian Arab citizens of the Golan Heights, it is stated that “the occupied Golan plateau is an integral part of Arab Syria”. Article 3 of that charter, which was formulated by our citizens under occupation in spite of the Israeli tanks and United States wal planes, provides that “our occupied territory is the sacred inheritance of the Syrian people and that any person who attempts to sell or abandon an inch of that territory to the Israeli occupiers will be committing unforgivable treason and a great sin against our people”. 25. 1 can confirm to the Council that the situation in the Golan Heights is deteriorating day by day. The Jerusalem newspaper Al-F@, in its issue of 6 January 1983, quoted the mayor of the village of Majdelshams as saying: “We have been pressured by the occupation authorities to carry Israeli identification cards, but we carry hatred for them in our hearts,” 21. Xn addition, The Jervsale~n Post on 7 October 1982 published an interview with the Minister of Defence of Israel, the hero of Israel, Ariel Sharon; that interview was conducted in a settlement near Jenin, in the northern part of the West Bank. He said that “massive settlements all over the West Bank area are the best answer to the various plans that outsiders are trying to foist on Israel” [see S/1.5482]. Is that not a challenge to the Security Council? Is the Council not an “outsider” to Israel? 26. The punishment meted out by the Israeli occupation authorities to every Syrian Arab in the Golan Heights who refuses to carry the Israeli identification card is equal to civil death, since such a person is prohibited from selling his crops if he does not carry an Israeli identification card and all opportunities to work 27. With regard to Israeli expansion in the Golan Heights-a Jhit nocornpli that Israel considers to be irrevocable, but one that we feel can be changed-Al- Fc@ recentIy quoted the Israeli official responsible for the expansionist Israeli settlement operations in the Golan Heights as stating: “We want to add 20,000 citizens within five years, and the law [on the annexation of the Golan Heights approved by the Israeli Knesset on 14 December 1981”1--a law which the Security Council declared null and void in its resolution 497 (19X1)--“helps us in this respect. There are initiatives for investors. We are pIanning a large settlement that can accommodate hundreds of families, and we are also making plans to establish other permanent settlements in addition to the 31 already in existence.” 28. Such facts and figures, and many others, represent a great deal of human suffering and are violations of national sovereignty, international law and the principles of human rights, as well as having grave security and political implications that the Council will undoubtedly consider very important, since its prime responsibility is the elimination of aggression. Should the Council fail to exercise that responsibility, we would remind members that States have a natural right to exercise self-defence in order to repulse aggression, until the Council takes the necessary measures. 29. In light of these ob.jectives and principles and in view of the tragic reahty imposed by the Zionist colonialists on our citizens and brothers in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights-an now in south Lebanon, where, according to the latest reports from American sources, the Israelis are now building settlements-we must pause and ask what the Council will finally do and how it will live up to its responsibilities and its duties in the face of this continuous aggression that began in 1948. 30. The brutal aggression prevailing in the region can clearly be ascribed to three major interrelated factors, the first of which is the official American position of extending unlimited support to Israel. It is irrationally affording excessive protection to the aggressor, and such a course is detrimental to the Americans thetnselves, from whom, in the name of democracy and freedom of the press, the facts are being hidden and concealed, 31. How could these territories have been occupied, and by what means, had it not been for American support’? How could the settlements have been built 32. American assistance to Israel in all fomlj exceeds $4 billion for the next fiscal year. This figtrflr‘ includes $2.7 billion the American Government wishcj to grant to Israel, including no less than $500 million of tax-exempt Jewish contributions and another $5Ot) mile lion in revenues from the sale of Israeli Government bonds, as well as several million dollars earned from tariff exemptions on Israeli products imported into Ihe United States. These figures, large as they are, do n31 reflect the real dimensions and do not actually shuu the greed of Israel. 33. I should like to say that he who laughs today Hill cry tomorrow; he who laughs today when the rL’- presentative of the Syrian Arab Republic is speaking will cry tomorrow. 34. Who is paying for the recent and continuous Israeli aggression against Lebanon’? Surely, there is 3 dilemma regarding the capacity of the American treasury. While taxes are being imposed on American citizens living on welfare, Israeli greed is be& satisfied at the expense of the American taxpayer. Why‘? Because senators, representatives and got’- ernors must obey the instructions of the Zionist lobby. In addition, this generous help is being provided while millions of third-world children are starving to death and while each Israeli is receiving approximstsl~ $i ,000 annually in the form of American assistance, iiS well as revenues drawn from usurped Arab properties and properties of Palestinian refugees and at tht expense of the Lebanese and Egyptian economics. 35. As for the Palestinians, they receive from the American Administration only incendiary bornhs. cluster bombs and fragmentation bombs dropped from sophisticated American aircraft. In one day Ia\1 summer the number of these bombs reached 2OQ,o(.pII. Actually, the United States is involved in a colonialist scheme: in order to give this scheme the necessary respect, to promote it and to sell it to American public opinion, the United States Government hiI5 thrown in the so-called strategic alliance for the defence of democracy-this democracy which has stifled Lebanon economically and destroyed its peuple, its economic symmetry and its health and social structures. Having devastated cities and villages am! having destroyed the total infrastructure of Arab Palestine and Arab Lebanon, it has also isolated Arab Egypt and imposed restrictions on its sovereignty. 36. The second factor, which is no less importan! than the first, is that while Israel escalates its expansionist policies and hastens to implement them. 43. We warned the Council that the objectives of Israel were to usurp the land of others and we, along with all other objective analysts, expected the fate of the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights to be directly linked to the blood-bath committed in Lebanon. This is the third factor constituting proof of the Israeli madness we are still witnessing. While the Israelis were committing methodical massacres in Lebanon against Lebanese and Palestinians, they were actually trying to achieve two other aims-the first, to weaken Syria, the bastion of Arab resistance and confrontation; and the second, as I said before, to smallow up more Arab territories, to eliminate the heroic resistance of our citizens who are under occupation and to liquidate the Palestinian resistance inside and outside. 37. The current meetings of the Council must be interpreted as another test of the credibility of ,American policy with regard to Israel’s settlements policy and the protection of the national rights of the Palestinian people. It is also a test of the American position on the continuous violation of Arab rights in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. 44. The Israelis are presenting the world with an occupation that is a fuit accunzpli and that is being expanded. Here one has to wonder if the Lexicon of the United States delegation will continue to fail to consider annexation as a form of aggression-just as it did when Israel annexed the Golan Heights. 38. We wish once more to declare to .the United States delegation that we are not guardians of American interests in the area. 39. If the United States really wants peace, then it must make use of the principles of the Twelfth Arab Summit Conference, held at Fez,‘Morocco, on 25 November 1981 and from 6 to 9 September 1982, based on full Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Arab territories and from Jerusalem, the declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian State and the exercise by the Palestinian people of its inalienable rights, including its right to establish an independent State [S/15510, N~IICX, sect. I]. We repeat that there will be peace only if it is based on the Fez principles, which enjoy consensus throughout the Arab world. 45. We in the Syrian Arab Republic have stated that Arab rights are not up for sale or for barter. We have also said that we are resolved to resist aggression and occupation, regardless of the price and the sacrifices. In our persistent efforts to achieve peace, we will not give up our rights or the rights of our Arab brothers. We should like to remind the Council that the one that is impeding work towards a just peace is the one that is providing Israel with funds, weapons and political support in all areas. The evidence we cite is what has happened to Lebanon and the impeditnents erected by the United States in order to bring about the abrogation of Council resolutions 508 (1982) and 509 (1982). 40. We sincerely believe that the Council must condemn Israel and its Zionist dogma, regardless of the personality of Israel’s ruler today or of its future rulers-for Israeli dogma remains the same no matter what party is in power. Political parties in Israel are a way of splitting power, but the dogma remains the same; it is that of Zionism; it is a racist settler dogma. The Israeli nature cannot be changed regardless of who rules. 46. In conclusion, I should like to recall that Israel and the United States are responsible, before the international community, for every violation or contravention of Arab rights, whether they be territorial or humanitarian rights. Our national duty is very clear from the Charter of the United Nations. General Assembly and Security Council resolutions have determined that the colonial settlements are illegal and must be treated as such and destroyed. Every Arab citizen must return to his homeland and his property and Israel must withdraw from all the occupied Arab territories unconditionally and must recognize the national rights of the Palestinian people, which are inalienable rights. 41. Is not Allon a member of the so-called Socialist Party? And is not what we see today the faithful implementation of his infamous 1967 plan? The essence of the issue is the Zionist ideology stemming from petrified, immoral and distorted colonialist dogma-an ideology which cannot survive within the framework of an international rkgime under the rule of law. 47. If the Council is to regain its prestige and credibility-and I apologize for saying that, but my land is occupied and my people is oppressed-it must 42. At the outset of the Israeli aggression against Lebanon we warned the Council that Israel’s objec- 55. The policy of settlement practised by Israel since I967 in the occupied Arab and Palestinian territories has become a serious issue. It has extended beyond the territories occupied in 1967.

The next speaker is the EPreSeIltEitiVe Of Egypt. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement. 56. All the components of the problem are based on this occupation and the centrality of the subject of territory. Starting with practices against the legal inhabitants of the land-those who have the legal and historical rights-we see a policy that seeks to evacuate the Palestinian inhabitants gradually from the occupied territories. This occupation of territory leads to a strangulation of the national legislative, administrative and educational institutions as well as transforming the Palestinian inhabitants by force from fullfledged citizens in their land to citizens the least of whom could be described as second-class or thirdclass citizens who daily suffer greatly under the yoke of the military occupation.

Mr. President, at the outset of the first statement I have the honour to make before the Council, as the representative of Egypt, 1 should like to express our appreciation of resolution 528 (1982) adopted unanimously at the end of last year to make the Arabic language a language of the Council in recognition not only of that language’s vitality in contemporary international relations and the important role of the peoples and States that use it, but also of the contribution made by those who speak it to world culture and legacy throughout history. 57. All the peace initiatives have been unanimous, in one way or another, on the necessity of implementing Council resolution 242 (1967), which calls on Israel to withdraw from the occupied Arab territories. All those initiatives have that sound legal and political basis for a just peace in the Middle East. Despite that, the continuous Israeli practices since 1967 in the occupied Arab territories aim at undermining that basis by the determined liquidation of everything having to do with the subject of territory, by establishing settlements, seizing the water resources or evacuating the original inhabitants of the territory. 50. I should like to express our congratulations to you, Sir, on your assumption of the presidency of the Council. You represent a country with which we have relations of friendship and mutual respect. I am sure that your experience and well-known ability will lead the Council to the desired success in discharging its responsibilities for the maintenance of international peace and security. 51. I should also like to express the appreciation of the delegation of Egypt to your predecessor, the President of the Council last month, Mr, Amega, who demonstrated his experience and ability and is an e=nlPlarY representative of the friendly people of Togo, which has bonds of common history and struggle with my country, 58. A settlements policy which started, only two weeks after the June 1967 war, by annexing Arab Jerusalem has continued in the Jordan Valley in order to erect a human barrier from north to south on the West Bank of the Jordan River; then it went on to create more settlements around the larger Palestinian cities of Nablus, Ramallah, Hebron and Halhul. Those policies were at first camouflaged under the pretext of security; then other arguments-religious and historical claims-were used, under the label of “liberated” or “administered” territories. Today all those policies are pursued brazenly and with impunity to try to swallow up the rest of the occupied Arab territories. 52. MY delegation is also pleased to see the friendly nations that joined the Council at the beginning of this Year and hopes that they will have great success in discharging their great responsibilities for the maintenance of the stability and security of the world and the consecration of international legality, 53. The maw meetings of the Council on the problem of the Middle East reflect the continuous UNrcern of the world over this problem and the constant hkrest in the unceasing development of events in order to grasp from their meaning and tragedy new hope that may help in maintaining peace in the Middle East. 59. All international forums and the resolutions emanating from them have been unanimous in stating that the settlements are illegal and an obstacle to peace. I need not recall here before the Council the statement by the United States Department of State on the 65. Egypt is not alone when it says that the key to peace in the Middle East is acceptance by each party of the rights of all parties to existence, self-determination and independence within the framework of international legality. Peace cannot be maintained by evacuating the original inhabitants from their land. Occupation, oppression and the establishment of settlements are futile. The only way to settle the Arab- Israeli conflict is by a dialogue for a just peace in which all the parties take part, without any party trying to pre-empt the situation by effecting defacto changes as Israel does. 60. The study published by Benvenisti, the former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, in which he describes the means and aims to dominate more occupied Arab territories and increase the number of Israeli inhabitants, has debunked the Israeli peace claims. The main plan put forward by the settlements administration of the Jewish Agency and the Settlement Section of the Zionist Association covers five years starting from 1983. Right from this year, in accordance with that plan, there will be, in addition to the inhabitants of the West Bank, 100,000 Israelis; 20,000 will be added in the Golan Heights and 10,000 in the Gaza Strip. We can imagine the consequences of all that for the original inhabitants of those Arab territories. 66. The policy of force and oppression exacerbates the situation. The old methods that have been used so far-and more starkly and flagrantly-cannot lead to stability. The continued establishment of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories should cease forthwith. 67. The usurpation of land by force cannot prepare the way towards peaceful coexistence. We hail the attitudes we have witnessed in Israel itself in the last few months, deploring and rejecting the policy of oppression and suppression, because the peace dynamism and the peace circle-despite all adverse pressures-are expanding day by day. We arc not far away from the winds of change expressed by the voices of peace we have heard recently in Israel itself calling for a dialogue and coexistence and mutual recognition of rights and duties. 61. Israel is actually practising the right of ownership over 400,000 acres of the total area of the West Bank-which is estimated at 1.5 million acresunder an old Ottoman law which Israel invokes to claim the right to seize uncultivated land. 62. It is clear that the explicit aim here is to keep the Arabs under military rule, surrounded by settlements in which the inhabitants would be hostages in their own territory and homeland, surrounded by Israeli citizens who are subjected to Israeli law on all sides, and where in the end there would be a duality in the rule prevailing, which the Palestinians would either accept or be expelled for good. 68. The glimmer of hope, emanating from these attitudes that oppose policies rejecting peace, will confirm that the genuine desire for peace based on justice and international legality is destined to prevail. The Council, is discharging its responsibilities and commitments for maintaining international peace and security, should reaffirm in regard to the Middle East what has been stated in its resolutions concerning the illegality of Israeli policies and practices in the occupied Arab territories and the necessity of desisting from them forthwith so that the circle of peace, now small and limited, may expand, and so that the voices of peace and right and justice may be heard loud and clear in implementation of the national legitimate Palestinian rights to its occupied territories under its legal leadership, within the framework of the Charter of the United Nations and its resolutions and in the light of a new epoch of coexistence and conciliation among all the peoples of the region and the world. 63. The Council unanimously adopted its resolution 465 (1980) which states, in paragraph 5, “that all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition. . . of the. . . territories occupied. . , including Jerusalem. . . have no legal validity”. In 1981 the Council adopted resolution 497 (1981), on the illegality of Israel’s decision to impose its laws in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, and demanded that Israel should rescind it forthwith. Other resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and the Security Council in 1982 confirm those principles and call on Israel to respect and implement them. 64. The delegation of Egypt sees Israel’s resistance and intransigence and its persistence in refusing to comply with the will of the international community as weakening the possibilities for peace, a breach of the principles of the Charter and international law, a violation of Israel’s contractual commitments and a placing of obstacles day after day in the path of all the

The next speaker is the representative of India. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement. 71. One such problem, which is a matter of grave concern and great urgency,, is the prqblem which brings us to this chamber agam this evenmg. It IS yet, by any means, a new problem. At the same time tt IS a matter which in the recent past has assumed a new and frightening dimension and which threatens further to aggravate the tension and strife that have long afflicted the Middle East. 72. Not too long ago the world was witness to Yet another series of Israel’s misdeeds. The memory of Israel’s brazen aggression against Lebanon and the Palestinian people and of the genocidal massacres of Sabra and Shati]a is still fresh in our minds. The report of the Israeli Commission of Inquiry released earlier this week has established beyond doubt the responsibility of the Israeli authorities. One would have hoped that with the restoration of another transient and precarious truce in the Middle East, and with the efforts being made in several quarters to look for a just and lasting settlement of the Palestine question, a greater sense of sobriety and responsibility would be displayed by all concerned. But obviously the attributes of sobriety and responsibility are quite alien to Israel. Obviously the Government of Israel is too habituated to indulgence in acts of aggression, subversion and every conceivable kind of provocation to remain inactive for long. 73. Israel’s decision to press ahead with its plans to establish further settlements in the illegally occupied Arab territories is only one more instance of how that country wilfully flouts international law and the will of the world community as reflected in innumerable resolutions of the General Assembly as well as of the Council. All those decisions and resolutions have recognized that this policy violates international law and constitutes an insurmountable obstacle to peace and stability in the region. Clearly Israel’s recent actions are part of its grand design radically to alter the demographic structure of the occupied territories in violation of the fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.1 It is now estimated that the number of Israeli settlers on the West Bank has increased more than seven-fold in the last five years. If the Israeli rBgime has its way, we are told that 400,000 Israelis will be made to settle on the West Bank over the next five years and I ,4 million in the same area over the next three decades. We also have been hearing of instances of brutal repression being undertaken against the indigenous popu]ation of the OccuPied tetT~tOriCs. We have learned about the 74. The brave people of Palestine, under the leadership of the PLO, have been through endless agony. Successive generations of Palestinians have not known what it means to live in peace. Their aspirations are consecrated with the blood of thousands of innocent men, women and children. Today the freedom-fighters of Palestine have been dispersed to far-away places, separated from their near and dear ones, waiting in the hope that they can one day return to see the fulfilment of their legitimate rights. The people of Palestine have made tremendous sacrifices and have demonstrated both statesmanship and a spirit of accommodation. They have every right to restitution of their homeland and the establishment of an independent State of their own. Recently certain proposals have been made, particularly at Fez [ibid.], which could constitute a significant step forward in the quest for a settlement. We should like those proposals to make headway. The creation of an atmosphere conducive to that end is essential. Israel’s intolerable actions can only gravely hamper that process. It is imperative that Israel be restrained, effectively and without prevarication, by those in a position to restrain it. 75. The Council should in unequivocal terms fix responsibility on Israel for all its actions in the occupied Arab territories in violation of the Council’s resolutions and its obligations under the Charter of the United Natiolis, and demand its immediate and unconditional withdrawal from those territories. 76. The Council discharges an important duty. It has the capacity to act decisively and with a sense of purpose to put a halt to Israel’s intransigence. We hope that its members will display the requisite political will to do so. We hope that the Council will vindicate our trust.

The next speaker is the representative of Yugoslavia. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement.

1 should like to express my gratitude to the Council for enabling me to present the views of Yugoslavia on the situation in the occupied Arab territories. 87. We fully support the resolve of the Palestinian people to live in freedom and independence and in its own territory. The Palestinian people have not yielded in their determination to achieve their own liberation and to preserve their national and cultural identity. In that struggle they are led by their sole and legitimate representative, the PLO. 80. Our congratulations are also addressed to the representatives of Malta, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Pakistan and Zimbabwe, countries that were elected to the Council at the last session of the General Assembly. 81. We are particularly pleased to note the growing number of representatives of non-aligned countries elected to the Council. Their participation in the deliberations of the Council is another example, in our view, of the increasingly important influence and role of the policy and movement of non-alignment in international relations. 88. The peoples of Yugoslavia have jealously safeguarded and are still jealously safeguarding their freedom and independence, Our experience and that of other peoples teach us that peoples fighting for freedom, self-determination and independence will not and cannot remain alone: they are always stronger than those trying to impose domination and they are victorious in the end, The quest for freedom by the Palestinian people has made the world aware of the moral obligation to put an end to such domination. The inalienable rights of the Palestinian people have become one of the highest and most urgent responsibilities of the United Nations, and the Palestinian people have the sovereign right to self-determination, which implies the establishment of their own State. 82. The use of force by Israel, its continuous and systematic expansion, its policy of defiance, colonization and domination have for years been the focus of our attention and represent a continous challenge to the conscience of the international community. 83. The General Assembly, as well as the Security Council, recently considered the consequences of the aggressive policy of Israel, which is attempting to subjugate peoples and to usurp their ‘land by force. Flagrant violations of norms of international law, as well as the encroachment upon the inalienable rights of the population in the occupied Palestinian and other Arab territories, continue unabated. 89. We believe that new efforts have to be made in th,at regard so that the bases for a lasting peace, security and justice for all peoples and States in that region, can be created. The United Nations, and in particular the Council, must constantly promote the legitimate rights to freedom and independence of all peoples under colonial and foreign domination. It cannot be tolerated that these rights be violated and ignored, as in the case of the Palestinian people. 84. Recourse to arms, persecution and infringement of the fundamental human rights of the Palestinian and other Arab peoples remain the order of the day. Examples of and testimony to the continued aggression, expansion and annexation of Arab territories, and the suffering of the people living in those territories, demonstrate that there is a threat to the peace and security of the region and of the world at large. 90. There is no doubt that the United Nations, and in particular the Security Council, bears great responsibility for solving the Middle East crisis. The role of the United Nations in this process is indispensable and should be further strengthened. The constant use of force, military interventions and interference in the internal affairs of sovereign countries call for a higher sense of responsibility, and this should be approached with a great sense of urgency if more countries are not to fall victim to the use of force and aggression. X.5. There are systematic attempts to impose changes by Juit ncconzpli in the political, demographic and national map of the entire region. A large part of the national territory of Lebanon remains under lsraeli occupation. Persecution continues on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights-all territories occupied by Israel. In defiance of the decisions of the United Nations, there are more and more illegal settlements on Palestinian and Arab soil and property. 91. Yugoslavia, as well as other non-aligned countries, has always attached great significance to all aspects of the Middle East crisis, in particular the aspect of the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. We have always proceeded from the genuine principles of non-alignment-opposing any aggression and use of force and colonial and foreign domination and supporting the right of all peoples to decide their destiny freely-and we have always considered that the United Nations constitutes the best framework for safeguarding the fundamental rights of peoples. 86. It should be clearly stated once again that the purposes and aims of the Charter of the United Nations and our dedication to the principles of independence and sovereignty, as well as our dedication to the right to national life and existence of all peoples, make us duty bound to bring an end to the 93. ~~ solution can, in our view, be considered just and comprehensive without the participation of the pLG on an equal footing and without the recognition of the right of all States and peoples in the region to independence, within secure and recognized boundaries. 94. We expect that further efforts will be undertaken by the Security Council and the General Assembly, and other initiatives taken aimed at a just, tasting and comprehensive political solution of the situation in the Middle East and ofthe Palestinian qUeStiOn as its core.

The next speaker is the representative of the Yemen Arab Republic, I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement.

I should like at the outset to express my pleasure at seeing you, Mr, Oleg Aleksandrovich Troyanovsky, presiding over the work of the Council, for you are a close friend of the Arab people and your country is a true friend of the Arab people and is linked to Yemen by long-standing bonds of friendship going back 54 years. Yemen was one of the first Arab States to sign a treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union, in 1928. I had the honour to participate in the preparations for the celebrations which took place in 1978 in Sana’a to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Soviet-Yemeni treaty of friendship, That longstanding friendship between Yemen and the Soviet Union is a demonstration of good faith and mutual respect and trust. The delegation of the Yemen Arab Republic therefore hopes, Sir, that under your presidency the Council will adopt resolutions which will restore the international community’s confidence in the Security Council, which is entrusted with the responsibility for the maintenance of internationa] peace and security. 97. 1 should like also to express my delegation’s thanks to the members of the Council for their kindness in permitting it to participate in this discussion. l also extend our congratulations to the new members of the Council. 98. 1 cannot fail t0 express our appreciation also to Mr. Amega of Togo, who presided over the work of the Council last month with outstanding wisdom. 99. Once more the Council is considering the situation in the occupied Arab and Palestinian territories, where tragedy and suffering have been unremitting for the past 35 years. The Palestinians are sti]] suffering 100. The Arabs have declared repeatedly that they are a peace-loving nation. The Twelfth Arab Summit Conference, held at Fez in November 198 I and September 1982, unanimously adopted an Arab peace plan which, inter alia, calls for the establishment of a just, comprehensive peace in the Middle East, guaranteeing the right of all peoples in the region to live in peace within secure borders, this to be guaranteed by the Security Council [ibid.]. What, members of the Council, have you done with this international responsibility, entrusted to you by the international community? What have you done in the face of Israeli intransigence and rejection of all peace initiatives? Will you disappoint the international community once more, and wiII you permit the State of the Zionist gangs to wreak havoc with impunity, oppressing Palestinian citizens, expelling them from their territories, devastating their homeland, displacing them, and oppressing and humiliating those who are left under occupation? The evidence calling for the Council to condemn these Zionist gangs is abundant; the most recent evidence is contained in the report of the Israeli commission of inquiry into the atrocious massacres of Palestinians committed in the Sabra and Shatila camps, claiming the lives of innocent women, children and old people. 101. The State of the Zionist gangs has become addicted to blackmail, treachery and treason, and to sowing discord among brothers and neighbours. The latest report on this subject was published in The Christian Science Monitor of 8 February 1983. It stated that the Zionist occupiers of southern Lebanon admit that they have begun to establish, through blackmail and the threat of force, militias of Shiite Muslims, which they have dubbed “Guards of the Southl’ or the “National Guard”, to pit Lebanese Muslims against one another. Yet the admirers of Israel speak of its democracy and its ethical principles. Does Israel’s “democratic” regime absolve its leaders of responsibility for the crimes which they commit daily against humanity?

The fact that the Council responded almost immediately to the request of the Group of Arab States in the United Nations, as submitted by the representative of Jordan [s/155991, is an expression of the concern of the members of the Council at the policies and practices of Israel, the occupying Power, in the Palestinian and other Arab territories under Israeli military occupation since June 1967, including Jerusalem. We are certain that under your presidency, Sir, and with your wisdom, the Council will prescribe a formula-or will, at least, spare no effort to prescribe one-that will end the existing state of continuous and alarming deterioration in the situation in the Middle East. First and foremost the Council must, we believe, invoke all the powers vested in it by the Charter of the United Nations to compel a so-called Member of the United Nations to accept and carry out the Council’s decisions and, in case of failure, the Council should then prescribe the remedies detailed in the Charter. 103. Whatever happened to the Israelis’ ethical principles? Man cannot commit such barbaric acts unless he abandons his humanity. To our great regret, a super-Power that is a permanent member of the Council, one that assumes great responsibility for international peace and security is strengthening this Nazi rigime through military and economic assistance with the funds it collects from its taxpayers who themselves are desperately in need of such funds to generate employment. 104. It has been proved beyond doubt that the rulers of Israel were the planners and executors, in accordance with military traditions, of the orders for soldiers to enter the camps of the Palestinian refugees to commit the horrendous massacre that claimed the lives of innocent persons in the &bra and Shatila camps. The prime responsibility for that horrendous massacre falls upon the Israeli forces of occupation. The Israeli committee of inquiry has condemned bloodthirsty Sharon and called for his resignation or expulsion from the Israeli Cabinet. It has also condemned bloodthirsty Begin, Shamir and the Nazi military clique of spiteful officers, whose actions reveal their malice. 109. It is our earnest belief and conviction that the founding fathers who drafted and ratified the Charter meant every word in it. It is not a literary heritage; it is a moral heritage aimed at saving “succeeding generations from the scourge of war”. And yet two generations of Palestinian Arabs have been subjected to the scourge and horrors of acts of aggression, culminating in acts of genocide. 105. The Council has called for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon, but Begin’s Government is resolved to impose its unjust conditions on Lebanon through blackmail and the threat of continued occupation. 110. You, Mr. President, represent peoples in the Soviet Union who have paid an extremely high price, The heroic peoples of the Soviet Union resolved to confront and defeat the Nazi onslaught and, together with the peace-loving peoples in the world, they succeeded in crushing the Nazis and their allies. Thus, you do know from personal experience what the scourge of war means. Your Government has unequivocally pronounced its commitment to all endeavours to secure a comprehensive and just peace in the Middle East. We in the PLO know that your Government is sincerely committed to its policy in the Middle East, and our Palestinian people highly esteem that principled stand. 106. The Begin Government has totally disregarded the Arab peace plan and the peace plan proposed by the late President of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev [see S/15403, anrzex], as well as President Reagan’s peace initiative? and all the resofutions adopted by the Security Council and the General Assembly. That Government has, I repeat, totally disregarded all of these. What option is then left to the Council to deter aggression and establish peace in the Middle East? In the view of my delegation, it has no other option but to implement the resolutions of the General Assembly, including resolution 37/86 D, which requests the Security Council to discharge its responsibilities under the Charter and recognize the inalienable rights of the Palestinian Arab people, including the right to self-determination and the right to establish its independent Arab State in Palestine, as well as to implement relevant United Nations resolu- 111. I wish to register my great appreciation to our brother, the representative of Togo, who conducted the business of the Council last month. I wish to extend through you, Sir, to Ireland, Japan, Panama, Spain and Uganda our appreciation for their positive contribution to the achievement of peace during the past two years. In particular our thanks go to II?. The Council has decided to resume the debate it began in November 1982 [2401sf meetingI. In September 1982 the Twelfth Arab Summit Conference was held at Fez, and a declaration constituting the basis for a constructive approach to attain peace was unanimously adopted [s/1.5510, nn/zex, sect. 11. This approach fully recognizes the role of the United Nations and specifically the role of the Security Council, on which the States Members have conferred the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, agreeing that in carrying out its duties under this responsibilily the Council acts on their behalf. 113. The declaration of the Fez Arab Summit Conference is a reaffirmation of the trust o:f the Arabs in [he Council. The PLO wishes, on behalf of the Palestinian people, to reaffirm its adherence and commitment to the principles of the Charter, the resolutions of the United Nations on the question of Palestine and. naturally, the decisions of the Arab Summit Conference, I 14. 1 am being asked by a number of friends why the Council should be convened. I have just stated why the Council convenes at any time. The Council convenes simply because it is entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining international peace and security. This responsibility was conferred upon the Council by “the peoples”, as the Charter says, and the Palestinian people is one of those peoples. 1 IS. I am also being asked why the Council should be convened now. Frankly, for the past few weeks the PLO has been issuing almost daily information and press releases on the fate and destiny of our brothers under Israeli occupation. We had hoped that, as a result of those letters that were addressed to the President of the Council and the Secretary-General and of those press releases, we would at least receive some response from someone and the matter would be taken up seriously in the Council. 116. Well. that did not rc;~lly happen, so the matter was discussed in the Group of Arab States and a decision was taken to ask the Council to convene-and I am glad that the Council has responded. 118. On 13 January, after midnight, armed Israeli soldiers raided and searched the campus of Bethlehem University. They took away posters, literature and other printed material from the bulletin boards. According to a press release by the University, “two military vehicles appeared at the university gates at 11.30 p.m.” -almost midnight--“and demanded entry to the campus”. Of course, the gatekeeper refused to unlock the gates. But when Brother Thomas, the Bethlehem University Vice-President, and others arrived, the soldiers showed them a document written in Hebrew-a language that Brother Thomas did not understand-and claimed that it was a warrant. Being a man of the church and actually assigned to his post by His Holiness, Brother Thomas just let them in. For the next four hours soldiers toured the buildings of the University, confiscating papers, posters, written materials and photographs from bulletin boards. Some of them went to the trouble of photographing university rooms. I do not know why they did that, but they did. 119. The Academic Vice-President of the college, Brother Robert Daszkiwicz, told the press that the invasion of Bethlehem University was an infringement on the University’s and its students’ rights to own property, to be free to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers, as well as to be free to hold peaceful assemblies. The University administration issued a statement calling upon “all people who seek peace and justice and all those committed to preserving academic freedom to join them in speaking out against this nighttime invasion”. As a representative of that people, I thought it my duty to bring that appeal before the Council. 120. Earlier’ that day, troops has surrounded the campus and prevented students and visitors from getting in. At the time, hundreds of students were celebrating, delivering speeches and singing as part of a cultural programme entitled “The Palestinian Song Festival”, sponsored by the students’ senate arts club. Perhaps the word “Palestinian” enraged the Israelis. Brother Thomas reportedly told the authorities that he refused to intervene and prevent such festivities, since that would be interference in internal activities. 121. Similar raids were carried out against Al-Najah University, in Nablus, in which 10 members of the students’ council of the University were arrested. 122. At Bir Zeit University, Israeli military personnel arrested two students and barred foreign faculty from entering the campus on 18 January. Military checkposts stopped all cars and buses carrying students and teachers to the University. Israeli soldiers at 128. In Hcr’n~etz; of 10 December, Amos Elan, a writer and journalist, reported the following: 123, It was reported that Israeli soldiers informed the foreigners that they had been forbidden to teach at Bir ‘Zeit University and that, if they did, they would be breaking the law. “Israel is a ‘democracy of masters’ which dominates a large population of other nations and denies them any rights, including the most fundamental ones. This population lives under a ‘police State’ which operates through arbitrary orders without the control of a parliamentary body, The Israelis can no longer escape from the acknowledgement of their apartheid policy.” 124. There is also a university in Hebron. For three days no classes were held at Hebron University-on 15, 16 and 17 January-following the detention of 30 students. On 17 January five foreign teachers were ordered to stop lecturing until they signed an anti- PLO pledge. These teachers are British and Irish nationals giving classes at Hebron University; they were threatened with arrest if they kept working there. 129. This is one voice criticizing Israel within Israel. There were 400,000 Israelis criticizing Israel and nobody would dare say that the 400,000 were anti- Semitic or anti-Jewish. If one voice is raised in the United States criticizing Israel, immediately that person becomes anti-Semitic, even if he is a good honest-to-God Jew. 125. And we are asked: Why convene the Council? We thought that perhaps the Council could really be moved and take some action. 126. Apart from incidents at the universities, there are other things happening. I shall quote from an Israeli newspaper, Ye&t Ahnronor, on the substance of testimony given by a member of the Knesset, Shiva Weiss, who sent a report to the ‘Chairman of the Foreign and Security Affairs Committee of the Knesset and, through him, ‘to the Prime Minister. Neither the Prime Minister nor the Chairman of that Committee has reacted and, according to the press report, no one took the trouble to check the information. The report deals with the stoning of an Israeli car. It says: 130. Radio Israel, broadcasting in Hebrew on 4 January 1983-the Jerusalem domestic service-reported the following: “An officer who was the commander of the General Staff branch in the Judea district testified today for the defence in the trial of the seven soldiers and officers charged with hitting civilians in Judea and Samaria. He said thal there were clear directives on how to treat the population, and they included torture and hitting. . , . He answered in the affirmative the prosecutor’s question of whether he carried out orders to hit pupils after a riot in a school in Hebron.” “Half an hour later, in an alley far from where the stoning happened, an Arab boy was arrested and severely beaten with clubs until he could not stand any more on his legs. He was merely the first of those arrested in a preventative action which was planned for that night with the help of somebody appointed by the Israeli forces of occupation. Those people pointed out the addresses of inhabitants. Some 50 persons were arrested. They were concentrated along a wall, made to lie on their bellies and then to do what they call ‘exercises’-flexing their elbows. Those who were slow were being beaten on their backs or their testicles. Kicking was also employed. The boy who was arrested previously was then interrogated in public, and he was made to lie under a jeep, beaten up and cursed. And until 6 a.m. the arrested continued doing exercises and being beaten while from time to time soldiers shot above their heads-soldiers beating and humiliating. The arrested were compelled to stand on one leg, with their hands kept forward like statues. And as dawn broke, the soldiers indulged in an orgy of shooting in the presence of the arrested. And as the morning cleared, a truck belonging to one of the local inhabitants was confiscated, and he was 131. The Jeudetn Post in its issue of 21 January reported that a document was submitted to the Central Military Court in Jaffa on Wednesday, 19 January, during the trial of this officer and the other soldiers. According to that report Eitan-the Chief of Staff; his name came up the other day and we all know what happened, but it is irrelevant at this moment-had singled out issues such as the withdrawal from Sinai and the introduction of the civil administration as the main causes for unrest in the territories under occupation I wonder whether Eitan had ever thought that the unrest was caused by the prolonged occupation, by the repression, by the denial of the human and political and civil rights of the people. But what did he prescribe for confronting such a situation? First he opened a camp for teenage detainees at Far’a near Nablus. There were other recommendations, which were: “‘To arrest sparingly according to lists of suspects, arrest gradually according to the number of places available in the prisons: 132, In the document issued by Eitan he gave clear instructions to the following effect: “Inciters are to be dealt with forcefully and detained at every OpportunitY; “One must construct a camp urgently and use the legal facilities permitting detention for questioning [without trial] for the [18-day1 period stipulated . 1 . release for a day or two and then renewed arrest; “The civil administration iS t0 refrain from inviting notables in order to warn them [we would humiliate ourselves] and is instead to carry out arrests. ” He also says in those directives that: “The residents of the Jewish settlements have to carry arms and open fire when they are attacked. This should be made clear and publicized among the Arab residents.” They should be terrorized and shot’at. A further point in the instructions says that: “The civil administration should make extensive use of economic sanctions against problematic [Arab] localities, such as preventing the purchase of cement or fuel for a period we will determine.” That is, a period that the commander will determine, 133. And we are asked why the Council should meet and consider what is going on. 134. But this is not new to us. The military Government has issued orders to Israeli armed conscripts on the West Bank. One of those orders was the following: “Anyone YOU catch outside, you first beat with the clubs all over his body, except the head. Have no mercy, break all his bones! Give no explanations. First of all beat, and when you are finished YOU can explain why YOU have done so. If you catch a small child, order his whole famiiy out, make them stand in a row, and beat the father in front of his children, Don’t treat this beating as a privilege, it’s a duty! They understand no other way. There is no point itI arresting those who just wander around outside. Beat them and send them home, But if someone causes trouble, throws stones or something, first break his bones and then put him on the vehicle that will take him to military headquarters,’ Remember: from the minute he is on the vehicle he is an n-m and must not be beaten any more.37 arrested 136. Members can see the compelling circumstance that forced us to come to the Security Council once again. 137. And there is the question of our treasured land. The Israeli military authorities ordered the seizure on 13 January 1983 of 20,000 dunums of land belonging to residents of Al-Dhahiriyeh, south of Hebron. It was not accidental, because that tract of land falls in an area slated by the World Zionist Organization, under the Drobles Plan, for the establishment of settlement blocs around densely populated centres in the occupied territories. To my recollection, the Drobles PIan was circulated as a document of the Council [see S/13582 of 22 October 19791. 138. In this case the land is located within the Mount Hebron bloc, which, according to the World Zionist Organization’s plan, will be the site of three settlements. But that land was not empty. It has been described by its owners as partially planted with almond and olive trees, while the other section was used for growing grain. For the families that owned the 20,000 dunums, the land constitutes a major source of income, if not the only source of income. The Israeli explanation: this is taken for military purposes. 139. But then, another 23,000 dunums-again around Hebron, in the village of Yatta-were confiscated. This time the reason for the seizure is not specified. 140. As is known, Hebron is south of Jerusalem. North of Jerusalem in the Ramallah district, 5,000 dunums belonging to the village of Mukhmas were seized, and, according to the Israeli newspaper Hu’crretz, the land will be used to build a road to connect the Israeli settlement of Mukhmish to the Palestinian village of Mukhmas. 141. Again, a detailed report, published before the military authorities notified the Palestinian residents, spoke of other areas in Jenin and Nablus-one more, north of Jerusalem-which will come up for grabs very soon. 142. Commenting on the Israeli campaign to grab more land, Meron Benvenisti, the former deputy mayor of Jerusalem and an authority on Israeli 143. In the Nablus area, 28,000 dunums were grabbed on 19 January. The Israeli Custodian of Absentee Property sent letters to the mukhturs of six villages informing them of the decision of the occupation authorities. Just grab it! What do they do with that land? According to Ha’arctz, five new Jewish settlements will be established in the Jordan Valley on the West Bank. The establishment of these new scttlements has been approved by a Sub-Committee of the Governmental Committee for Settlements. So it is not being done by dissidents or irresponsible elements; it is being done by a Sub-Committee of the Governmental Committee for Settlements. 150. First, the aim was to spirit our people across the frontiers. That was what Herzl wanted to do. He did not succeed; nobody could spirit us across. Then Jabotinsky, the prompter and mentor of the Herut Party, called for the evacuation of the Palestinians as a prerequisite for establishing the State and said that the evacuation should take place, if need be, by an ironfirst policy. Next came Koenig, who prescribed a “thinning away” policy - thinning the Arab population away, the way Eichmann wanted to thin away the Jews in Vienna, It is not accidental that they used the same terminology. And now we are approaching what is known as the “radical solution”. Maybe it is a euphemism for the “final solution”, but we shall not permit them to do it. 144. Three of those five new settlements will be established in 1983, as has been recommended by the Head of the Settlement Division in the Zionist Histadrut. I5 I, We come now to the way the Israelis continue their policies. 145. On 25 January 1983 residents of Samu Village on the West Bank complained that 1,500 dunums of their land had been illegally grabbed. 152. There was a United States President who, on 30 April 1979, stated that the policy of establishing settlements was inconsistent with international law and an obstacle to peace. Another President of the United States was asked what he would do about what he called a freeze on settlements. The Council calls fat dismantling, the United States speaks of freeze, somebody may speak of defrosting, but nobody listens in any event. That President said: 146. On the other hand, the Israeli military Governor of Gaza met with representatives of refugees on 25 January and ordered the delivery to the refugees of written instructions signed by the military officer in charge of Refugee Rehabilitation and Welfare Affairs -1 do not know what sort of establishment that is. The ‘instructions forbid the Palestinian refugees to construct new buildings, to build additional parts to old ones or to demolish old buildings in order to build new ones, without written permission from the military government. The instructions also forbid the selling or the renting of apartments or any buildings within the refugee camp area. So a Palestinian who has a house cannot rent a part of it in order to pay the taxes. Eventually he might end up having to sell the house in order to meet the dues and pay the taxes. That was in Gaza. What peace is the ultimate goal in light of what we have just read to the Council? Even statements in the State Department of the United States vary. 153. Alan Romberg, on 4 November, commenting on the establishment of settlements, said: 147. In the Nablus area, the military-appointed municipal council-or what they called a municipal council after they had dissolved the legally elected Council of Nablus-had stopped granting licences to residents for building in the areas east and west of the town, as well as in the Sawaneh and Green Belt areas, which cover an area of 700 dunums’. Those areas were considered “closed” by the military and no building was allowed. 148. According to Hn’aretz of 5 January, the Israeli Minister of Science and one of his assistants are involved in establishing what they call “surveillant staffs” in the West Bank to prevent Palestinians from building new houses there. He even questioned Israel’s “willingness to abide by the promise of resolution 242 [(1967)]“. Even the United States questions that. “1 don’t think that it would be good diplomacy to be threatening or anything. And I don’t believe that’s necessary. I think that all of us realize that peace is the ultimate goal there.” “[that] intention. , . [is] most unwelcome. * I . we cannot understand why, at a time when we are actively seeking broader participation in the peace process, Israel persists in a pattern of activity which erodes the confidence of all, and most particularly the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza.” 6, 155. ‘fhcre was another statement by the State Department on the Israeli Settlement+-! moSt unfortunate and unwelcome statement. Here 1s a concrete translation of the position of the United States: only five months after Israel’s brutal invasion of Lebanon, it gets $475 million more than it used to receive. 156. After slaughtering innocent men, women and children, Israel arrogantly dismissed President Reagan’s Middle East peace plan. I am not defending that plan in any way, but I should at least like the United States to know exactly how much it is contributing -and not indirectly but directly-to Israel’s maintenance of and persistence in its policy. After all, if the United States gives Israel $2.485 billion a year-officially two thirds of it will take the form of grants, but in the final analysis it will be all grants--I cannot understand how the United States can exonerate itself of this Israeli policy, And yet we are asked why the Council should intervene. 157. Israel occupies a large part of Lebanon. It has been asked and requested, and there have been demands to this effect too, to withdraw from those territories and to ensure that the lives of the people of those territories are safeguarded and protected. 158. On 9 February the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) issued a press release--at last someone in the United Nations informed us what was happening lo our people under occupation. In that press release he stated that an explosion at the Miyah Miyah refugee camp, which has a population of 2,500, near Sidon, during the night had injured 3 people and damaged I4 houses, 2 seriously. Mr. Rydbeck, the Commissioner-General, said at his headquarters in Vienna: “This is the third incident at the camp in less than two weeks. On 31 January a shop in the camp was blown up, and on I February a group of men arrived in taxis and stoned some houses, UNRWA is in touch with the Israeli forces on the spot in an attempt to Put an end to these attacks, which are terrorizing innocent refugees, including children. It is Israel’s responsibility to ensure the safety of the civilian population in the areas which it controls.” Thai was the statement of Mr. Rydbeck. The press release continues: “In other recent incidents, some 40 Palestinian I-cfQW families have been intimidated into leaving 160. 1 shall hold the Council responsible for any repetition of that genocidal crime against our people, unless the Council moves. We cannot but condemn Israel and hold it solely and exclusively responsible for these criminal acts. 161. A report of the International Law Commission tells us that an “internationally wrongful act committed by a State in a field of activity in which that State is subject to the power of direction or control of another State entails the international responsibility of that other State. . . . The occupying State. . . assumes international responsibility for any internationally wrongful acts committed by organs of its own with which it has replaced corresponding organs of the occupied State, and will obviously be responsible for its own act.” The same responsibility falls squarely on that State fol acts committed by other organs. Israel is exclusively responsible for all those crimes, including the crimes of Sabra and Shatila and the invasion of Beirut, and I should like to see the Council pronounce itself clearly on this matter. 162. The General Assembly, in its resolution 37/123 B of 16 December 1982, has unanimously condemned the plunder of the Palestinian cultural heritage and called upon the Government of Israel to make full restitution of all the cultural properly belonging to Palestinian institutions, including the archives and documents removed from the Palestine Research Centre in Beirut, documents and archives arbitrarily seized by the Israeli military forces. The General Assembly adopted that resolution unanimously. Naturally, the criminal cast the lone negative vote. 163. An attack on a cultural heritage is an act of cultural genocide. We are now watching a television series called “The Winds of War”, The world watched the Nazis-those Christian Nazis-burn books, a cultural heritage. We still live through those scenes almost every night. We live them in our minds, in our consciences. We remember those crimes, those acts of cultural genocide, with horror. 164. Yet the Palestine Research Centre in Beirut was subjected to an escalating wave of attacks. A few years ago the Director, an academic, received an envelope which proved to be a letter-bomb. It caused 167. In conclusion, we call upon the Council and we hope it will respond. Israel must bc forced to withdraw from all the territories it has occupied since 1967. Israel must abide by and carry out all the decisions of the Security Council, and if Israel does not do that, then the Council has the remedy: such criminals have no place in the United Nations. 165. Thus having failed to destroy the resolute will of the Palestinians to survive, and alarmed by the powers of the intellect, Israel proceeded to the next step-burning the Centre. A car loaded with 500 pounds of explosives was detonated outside the Centre, resulting in the destruction by fire of a cultural heritage. The explosion resulted in another act of human, or rather inhuman, genocide. More than 20 innocent human beings were killed, assassinated in cold blood, and more than 120 were rushed to . hospitals to be attended by medical’ specialists as a result of injuries received. ’ Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949 (United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, No. 973). ’ WmkIy Compilatiort qf Prcsiderl/in/ D~~I~I~~II~~, Washington, D.C.. Government Printing Office, 1982, vol. 18, No. 35, p, 1081. T/w meeting r’ose ut 6.30 p.m. NOTES HOW TO OBTAIN UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATIONS United Nations publications may be obtained from bookstores and distributors throughout the world. Cor~uh your bookstore or write to: United Nations. Sales Section. New York or Geneva. COMMENT SE PROCURER LES PUBLICATIONS DES NATIONS UNIES Les publications des Nations Unies sont en vente dans les librairies et Its agences dbpositaires du monde entier. Informez-vous aupr& de votrc lihraire ou adressez-vous zi : Nations Unies. 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